Storm Season among us. Power outage readiness!!!

[SteveMM62Reef]

My DIY all 12 volt battery back up ran for a week, on a test. I got bored with checking the battery voltages, and ended the test. recently we had a 14 hour, and a seven and a half hour outages, with no problems. I didn’t do an inverter, as they use power too and DC Motors are more efficient.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I live in south Louisiana and have to deal with power outages every summer. They can last for days or weeks. I have a generator that I can plug into my breaker box and run the whole house on. Can use the large AC units or water heaters but have a few windows ac units . It get expensive but worth it. I have a whole waiting to be installed but runs on propane because we don’t have natural gas in our area. So even after it’s installed if it really prolonged I will have to go back to my portable gas.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Consensus is that generac is a good option? Looking at installing some form of relatively cost effective failsafe for power outages. Even thought about doing the smallest one at 7.5 kW just to power the tank and fridge.

Go big! Do the whole house, trust me do it once and don't regret it down the road

 

[neo1738]

Consensus is that generac is a good option? Looking at installing some form of relatively cost effective failsafe for power outages. Even thought about doing the smallest one at 7.5 kW just to power the tank and fridge.

Yes that, cummings or Kohler for whole home all good.

 

[sergifed91]

Where I'm at we are prone for possible outages from two things. Storms although very rare that we lose power cause of a storm but can happen. But mostly say this weekend so far 6 power outages. Each one only lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. Mostly cause of squirrels . This last time my aps didn't beep or do anything. Last outage was over an hour ago. I don't worry to much about the heaters. I actually have them unplugged this summer. My tank stays between 79 to 81 degrees. But all I have in my aps is my return pump. Winter then I'll add my heaters.

 

[Reefahholic]

It hurts me to think about filling my (5) 5 gallon gas can’s with ethanol free gas.

That will be super cheap!

 

[Sean Clark]

It hurts me to think about filling my (5) 5 gallon gas can’s with ethanol free gas.

That will be super cheap!

Not sure to laugh or cry...

 

[Reefahholic]

Not sure to laugh or cry...

I do have (2) 30# propane bottles filled right now and my extension cords ready. I’ll wait to fill the gas (I think) this year unless we have a active storm heading for Texas.

I also have (3) 1/G jugs filled with RODI water frozen in the freezer. That’s like 3 gigantic ice cubes if the power goes out. A chiller would be ideal and run on my generator, but I’ll have to wait for funding on that.

 

[Sean Clark]

I just did an impromptu shake down of my batteries last week and was pleased with the results. I should be able to get a bit over 3.5 days of runtime for the basics before recharging. After that it is two air stones only...

 

[131696]

3 storms in gulf right now possible developments. Go solar all the way ,pumps don't work for gas if electric out and in long run cheaper,last time everyone was out of gas for at least 1 1/2 months when Laura and delta hit us. Learn lesson got solar now and enough batteries to run for 5 days without charging with solar, just for tank ,not for house...lol

 

[Hallowhead]

Just finished installing my generac standby generator. We should be good to go!!

 

[Hallowhead]

Consensus is that generac is a good option? Looking at installing some form of relatively cost effective failsafe for power outages. Even thought about doing the smallest one at 7.5 kW just to power the tank and fridge.

I'd go with the 10kw. It's what I did and it has the auto transfer switch included.

Mine powers my tank, heat, ac (with capacitor), fridges, tv and assortment of lights. It's a lot stronger than you'd think.

 

[Tråsh_Påndå]

Luckily I own a trucking company and all my trucks have Thermoking APU’s with 4500 watt inverters. I can sleep in the truck to have AC and run a power cord inside to run my tank off the inverter.

 

[BigTerp]

My DIY all 12 volt battery back up ran for a week, on a test. I got bored with checking the battery voltages, and ended the test. recently we had a 14 hour, and a seven and a half hour outages, with no problems. I didn’t do an inverter, as they use power too and DC Motors are more efficient.

I'd be interested to hear more about your battery back up setup.

 

[gbru316]

Go big! Do the whole house, trust me do it once and don't regret it down the road

Kohler 20k installed about a month ago. Had a short service interruption (15-20 mins) over the weekend and aside from the lights flickering once, didn't even notice.

 

[Hallowhead]

Kohler 20k installed about a month ago. Had a short service interruption (15-20 mins) over the weekend and aside from the lights flickering once, didn't even notice.

Ultimate system would include a UPS to ensure zero downtime occurs while standby kicks on. It's only wish list right now, not essential but another quality of tank life improvement

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Ultimate system would include a UPS to ensure zero downtime occurs while standby kicks on. It's only wish list right now, not essential but another quality of tank life improvement

I'm not very familiar with whole house ups systems, would there still be a dip in voltage lights and pumps flicker like with the ATS?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Kohler 20k installed about a month ago. Had a short service interruption (15-20 mins) over the weekend and aside from the lights flickering once, didn't even notice.

Do the lights and pumps flicker when the ats takes over, the again when it goes back to normal operation?

 

[gbru316]

I'm not very familiar with whole house ups systems, would there still be a dip in voltage lights and pumps flicker like with the ATS?

They typically flicker when transferring to generator power, but I haven't noticed it when it transfers back to the grid.

 

[Hallowhead]

I'm not very familiar with whole house ups systems, would there still be a dip in voltage lights and pumps flicker like with the ATS?

I'm saying you'd stick the ups before you fish tank, that way it picks up the time period why the generator is warming up